Here in The Good Land I made my place beside the still waters. I became a tiller of the soil, a keeper of the flocks, and a hater of pigs.

Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.

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Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Young Turks Meet the Bucket

Turkeys are not overly stupid. We've found they just don't like new things. Yesterday I introduced them to a water bucket. It blew their minds.

The bucket was almost too much for them.

We don't let young poultry use an open bucket like this until they are big enough to stand up in it. A bucket of water is the most dangerous thing in the barnyard to little creatures. They must have known since they eyed the bucket with suspicion.

No one was brave enough to belly up to the bucket and get a drink. There were a lot of pips and odd looks... then they shoved someone forward and he got the first drink. The rest of the herd followed. They loved the bucket for the rest of the day.

That one is saying, "What are you kidding me? What is THAT?" Turkey = Mind blown.

Then I really spun their little turkey world on its axis.... I gave them some sunflowers. It was met with surprised resistance. Eventually they started pecking at the flowers. Then they all got exhausted from the new things and so everyone took a nap. Pretty much that's all the excitement turkeys can take for a day.

My big surprise was that they seemingly doubled in size overnight. So I spent the rest of the day shoveling out the garage so I can expand their pens.

Over the decade he has worked for us, our Turkey has tripled in size... To the point of when he complains about lack of seat comfort I reply, "It's the pants honey..." This is often followed by an unrepeatable response...

My turks are growing like snails I feel like. They're bourbons though so I'm comparing them to how my bronzes grew years ago and that's like comparing a broiler to a heritage breed chicken lol Whenever mine are introduced to anything new it's hilarious. I gave them a half of an over grown zucchini a couple weeks ago and the two of them stood around it pipping and wing-karate chopping it to make sure it wasn't alive I guess.It took one of 'their' chickens (the faverolles are their buddies) finally eating on it to get them to stop beating it haha

My favourite turkey moment was when we opened the cage to let them free-range. The 2 girls got out first, but the 2 boys took about half an hour to figure out how the door worked (as in how to walk out through the door). Then they all jumped up on the cage and sat there. I only let them out twice, there were just too unpredictable.

I like turkeys AND I like to eat turkey! Can you imagine smoked turkey meat ??? I once had a pet turkey that my brothers and I cleverly named "TOM". He would follow me everywhere and was pretty darn smart. He kept POOPING under my mom's closeline, not smart, he ended up in the oven.Thank you for sharing ! Todd

About Me

In my previous life I was a fussy, type-a tech gal..and now.. now here I am in the flyover zone on a farm. I gave up my Big Life and I became a tiller of the soil, a keeper of the flocks, and a hater of pigs.

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